The Orbital Children

The year is 2045. Space is no longer a distant dream but a showcase of the future, where tourist stations, corporate logos, helper drones and artificial intelligences have become as much a part of daily life as smartphones once were. In Earth's orbit operates the Japanese commercial station Anshin, a safe, bright, almost toylike hotel among the stars, built with the involvement of the tech giant Deegle. Three children from Earth arrive here through a program for minors: the polite and principled Taiyo, a junior member of the reformed UN and a white-hat hacker; the loud influencer Mina, who dreams of turning her space trip into explosive content; and her younger brother Hiroshi, who is far more interested in the true mysteries of the universe than in likes. They are set to meet Touya Sagami, one of the last children born off Earth, a stubborn, prickly and gifted hacker who despises "Earthlings" and has no intention of playing by their rules. With him is the fragile Konoha, another surviving "lunar" girl whose life depends on medical monitoring and old implants once created by a brilliant AI called Seven.